Sylvie Meis

About Sylvie Meis

Sylvie Françoise van der Vaart (born 13 April 1978, Breda), is a Dutch model, actress and presenter and former wife of former Soccer player Rafael van der Vaart.

By her 18th birthday, Meis had decided that she wanted to be a model and was cast for various shoots by casting agencies. After gaining an interest in television, she gained popularity through assignments at FoxKids and music station TMF. She hosts several events at TMF, such as presenting the annual TMF-awards, and conducting interviews with international artists such as Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue. In addition, she features in video clips and the Dutch TV-series “Costa”. In collaboration with the firm of JPC she also introduced the successful “Pure by Sylvie” jewelery line to the Dutch market. Thereafter she hosted the 2008 Fifa World Player of the Year award ceremony

After being elected Holland’s Sexiest Female in 2003, she started a relationship with then-Ajax soccer player Rafael van der Vaart. Due in part to the fame from their individual careers they soon become Holland’s most famous “soccer couple”. Their fame grew after their marriage on 10 June 2005 and live coverage of the wedding on SBS, with the broadcast gaining high ratings in Holland.

In September 2004, an Ajax Eredivisie league match against ADO Den Haag was temporarily halted by match officials due to incessant anti-Semitic chants by oppostion fans directed at van der Vaart.

Meis and her husband moved to Germany when he left Ajax Amsterdam to play for Bundesliga football club Hamburger SV. After her husband's 2008 transfer to Real Madrid, the van der Vaarts moved to Spain. The couple's first child, Damián Rafael, was born on 28 May 2006. The couple divorced in 2013.

On 19/09/2020 she married with Niclas Castello (a German contemporary artist), born on 21/07/1978.

As of December 2023, she has amassed 1,400,000 followers on Instagram.